


Underdog

by sebastian2017



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Kindergarten & Pre-school, Crack Treated Seriously, Double Agents, Fluff, Gen, Jewish Bucky Barnes, Kiddos being adorable, Kidfic, M/M, Marvel Bingo 2019, Playgrounds, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Spies, Too many uses of the word pen, also kiddos being overcompetitive, obviously hes like five lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-02
Updated: 2019-06-02
Packaged: 2020-04-06 17:25:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19067236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sebastian2017/pseuds/sebastian2017
Summary: "When you’re fighting a war, you’ve gotta have secret weapons. Everyone’s too silly to see you can beat ‘em all, so you’re sorta like my secret weapon.”“I don’t think there’s a lot of secret weapon stuff I can do, Bucky.”“Sure there is! You’re like… you’re like a ninja!"------Kindergartners take their games very seriously. Bucky and Steve are determined to win this week's scavenger hunt, even if they do have to sneak around in their own private team.





	Underdog

**Author's Note:**

> This is honestly super ridiculous, but also, is 100% the sort of thing I got up to when I was a little kid. :') 
> 
> I tagged it Stucky because they're the main pair, but they're five, so there's no romantic relationship, just cute kids being kids. Rest assured, they will def get together as teenagers and this is among the stories they will their their grandchildren :') 
> 
> This was written as a fill for Marvel Bingo, specifically square N1: Ninjas
> 
> CWs: food mention, kids being jerks the way kids are, sorta ableism, very gently anti-tony lol

Anyone who thinks children aren’t clever probably hasn’t spent enough time with them. Children are usually far too good with their scheming for anyone’s good. A few hours in a playground should be enough to dissolve anyone of that misconception. The Midland Charleston Union Kindergarten is a particularly ruthless place. Steve knows firsthand. It’s not that Steve enjoys being in trouble, it’s simply next to impossible to avoid trouble. Steve’s ideal day would be coming in, doing some finger painting, playing with his best friend Bucky, and getting a little closer to being able to recite his ABCs. Most of the day does go like that and it’s fine. Steve loves being at school during those days. It’s recess that’s the problem. Steve is probably the only five year old in the world who absolutely hates going out to the playground. 

 

Who can blame him? The playground is like some sort of battlefield. Most days, it’s some silly sort of boys vs girls war. (War to a group of kindergarteners, of course, means it’s a strange jumble of tag and capture the flag and there’s no real way to win, except to argue a little more loudly at the end of recess every day when winners are being decided.) Steve finds the whole idea ridiculous. He doesn’t understand why they have to separate into boys and girls. He has plenty of girl friends and he especially doesn’t like when the other boys will tease them or make jokes about how boys are better. He knows they’re definitely not. Not that they care all that much about what Steve thinks. He’s the littlest of their whole class and he gets sick so often, he’s missed almost as many days of classes as he’s actually attended. If Bucky didn’t live across the street from him, he’d probably be as mean to Steve as everyone else. 

 

But the two of them have been playing together since they were in diapers. That’s what his Ma always says. And Bucky always comes to visit when Steve is sick or in the hospital, without ever being weird about it. Even Ma is weird about it sometimes, so while Steve would never tell her because he’s a good boy and good boys don’t make their Mas sad, sometimes he likes Bucky even more than he likes Ma. If Bucky weren’t in the same class as him, Steve would probably never want to go to school. But he is, so at least it’s one less thing to make Steve almost wish he got sick so he didn’t have to go to class. 

 

Tuesday morning, though it feels like a Monday to Steve since he’d stayed home the day before with a bad cough, he lingers when it’s time for recess, hoping maybe everyone will leave and he can stay quiet enough that Mr. Fury won’t realize he’s still in the classroom and leave him to draw quietly inside while everyone else plays outside. Unfortunately, Bucky would never let that happen. 

 

“Stevie! C’mon, c’mon! Hurry up!” he shrieks, running over to where Steve was very purposefully making himself small against the bookshelf and grabbing his hand to drag him outside. 

 

Steve sighs and lets himself be dragged over. Bucky’s his bestest friend in the whole world, which means Steve knows him well enough to know there’s never any point in arguing his ideas. “I was going! I’m gonna tell your mom you’re being all impatien’ in school.” 

 

“Nothing she don’t already know.” Bucky shrugs. “You missed a whole bunch yesterday. Okay, so, Tony decided boys vs girls is stupid - which you and I have been saying since  _ forever  _ but whatever - so we split up and Tony and Clint picked two teams. I’m on Tony’s team, which is super gross, but Nat’s there, too, so it’s not so bad. With me so far?” 

 

All Steve’s gathered from this conversation is that people were picking teams, which definitely means no one’s going to want Steve on their team. But Bucky hasn’t realized that yet, apparently, so Steve doesn’t want to break it to him. “Yeah, I’m with ya, Buck. So what’re the teams doing? Same as always?” 

 

Bucky shrugs. “Sorta. Tony brought in a bunch of his mini gel pen collection and Mr. Grandmaster took ‘em and hid ‘em around the playground after school when everyone was gone. So every recess, the two teams are gonna try to find as many pens as possible before the other. Each team’s got a hiding spot on school for the pens they find. Ya can steal pens from the hiding spot, but if it’s not recess and you get tagged while tryna steal a pen, you’re outta the game. The game’s til Friday or til everyone gets tagged out and whoever has the most pens wins. There’s a captain’s meeting the first five minutes of playground, so we can make sure everyone knows you joined a team today. It’s perfect.” 

 

By the time Bucky’s finished explaining, Steve wishes more than before that he’d hidden out with his coloring books for recess. He’s not too surprised Mr. Grandmaster’s a part of the game. Everyone knows if you get stuck in his classroom, there’ll be something crazy happening every week. It’s one of the reasons  Steve was glad he and and Bucky got put with Mr. Fury. He’s got a reputation for being strict at times, but at least they don’t have to worry about their teacher getting involved in their antics. Though that’s the least of Steve’s worries. He’s almost sure it won’t matter anyway, because he won’t be on any team, but he won’t be the one to tell Bucky that. 

 

Steve nods, so Bucky knows he understands all the rules. Or at least, sort of understands. But since the rules to their games are usually sort of rules anyway, it’s fine to sort of understand. Bucky’s content with that, at least, and holds Steve’s hand the whole walk down to the end of the playground, until they get to Tony and the group of their classmates around him. It seems all three classrooms are involved in this. He’d known Mr. Grandmaster’s kids were a part of it, of course, but he spots a few from Mr. Ross’ classroom, too. That just means an even bigger playing field where things could be hiding, which Steve guesses is probably the point. Bucky lets go of Steve’s hand, finally, though it’s only so he can shove at Tony’s arm until he has his attention. 

 

“Tony, Steve’s back today. I want him to be on our team,” Bucky tells him. Nothing Bucky asks for ever sounds like a request. Not really like a demand, either. Just like he’s always so confident while asking, that he can’t imagine why someone would ever tell him no. 

 

Tony Stark, unfortunately, never seemed to get the message. He frowns in Steve’s direction and looks back at Bucky like he’s grown a third arm. “No. We picked teams yesterday and I didn’t pick Steve for my team. So he’s not on it.” 

 

“Steve wasn’t here yesterday for you to pick him, doofus,” Bucky scoffs. 

 

“Okay. Well I’m not picking him now either.” Tony shrugs. “Clint, do you wanna take Steve?” 

 

“Uh…” Clint’s nicer than Tony. Steve doubts he’ll say no straight out, but he’s not silly either. He knows Clint doesn’t want him either. 

 

Not that Bucky seems to care. He frowns more deeply, reaching to grab Steve by the wrist and pull him a little closer. “No, Steve goes on my team. Why can’t he be with us, Tony? We’re down a person anyway!”

 

“Steve barely counts. He’ll probably be sick half the week anyway and even if he weren’t, it’s not like he’d do much good. Steve can… he can referee or something, if he wants,” he offers. 

 

“That’s not nice!” Bucky scowls, letting go of Steve again, but only so he can shove Tony a few steps away. “Everyone misses days sometimes, why’s Steve the only one who can’t play?” 

 

“Bucky. It’s fine,” Steve insists. He’s not the sort to shy away from a fight, but even someone as stubborn headed as him knows that some dumb playground game isn’t worth it. 

 

“It’s not fine. If you don’t want Steve on your team, then Steve and I will just be our own team,” he says, grabbing Steve yet again and stomping off with him. 

 

Tony whines a bit behind them, but him and Bucky are already leaving. Steve lets Bucky lead him along until they’re tucked away in a plastic tube on the jungle gym. They’ve hid out here so much that Steve is pretty sure half the school thinks they own this spot. Whenever it’s too dusty out or Steve is too tired to run around, this has always been the spot they hide away in. Steve would like it if the other kids were a little nicer to him and let him play their games, but it’s not so bad to have quiet playgrounds with Bucky. Even if Bucky is sulking a great deal. 

 

“Sorry Tony’s a poo head, Buck. But you should play! I’ll cheer ya on,” Steve promises. 

 

Bucky shakes his head adamantly. “No! Fair’s fair, Stevie. And I mean it. You and I can be our own team.” 

 

“Bucky. That’s really nice and I’ll definitely tell Ma so she can tell Santa and he can tell the Hannukah Fairy, but you really don’t gotta. We’ll lose if it’s just us two. Tony’s right, I might not even be here all week and then you’ve got an even  _ smaller  _ team!” he points out. 

 

“So?” Bucky shrugs. “I’d rather play alone than with stupid jerks.” 

 

“That’s not a nice word!” Steve scolds, though by now, Bucky knows he’s not a snitch. 

 

“Meanie words for meanie kids. Besides, Tony’s just being really dumb. When you’re fighting a war, you’ve gotta have secret weapons. Everyone’s too silly to see you can beat ‘em all, so you’re sorta like my secret weapon.” 

 

“I don’t think there’s a lot of secret weapon stuff I can do, Bucky.” 

 

“Sure there is! You’re like… you’re like a ninja! Right? No one sees you coming so you can sneak around, find out people’s hiding spots, and get it back to me. Let them do the hard work and then we steal ‘em.” 

 

“I dunno, Buck. You really think I could get us to win.”

 

“Think? Don’t be a silly goose, Stevie. I  _ know  _ so.” 

 

“Ma says you’re ar’gant. That’s when someone’s really annoying cause they like themselves too much.” 

 

“Yeah? Well we can be ar’gant together when we’ve won.” 

  
  


\-----

 

Most of that playground they’d spent tucked away in their tunnel. If part of their whole strategy is going to be getting people to forget that Steve is even a part of this, they can’t very well be seen searching along with everybody on the first day. They have a decent view from there anyway, and they can spot most of the times someone finds a coveted gel pen and runs back to their team captain to show up. Bucky says Tony’s team hadn’t decided on a hiding spot yet and was willing to bet neither had Clint, so their mission today is just to keep a watchful eye as both teams start doing their hiding. Steve has no idea where they’ll end up hiding what they find, and neither does Bucky, but maybe it’s because they’re both waiting to see if they make it that far in the first place. 

 

They start to make progress during their afternoon snack, when Steve is sitting at the allergy table with his grapes and Peter is way too excited, as he usually is. Today he’s excited about the game, of course, and he’s blabbering away to Rhodey about how cool it is they’re on Tony’s team and how they’re definitely going to win and the loose tile in front of Tony’s cubby is the best hiding spot ever. They definitely shouldn’t be talking about it with someone not in their team standing right in front of them, but neither of them pays Steve much attention at all. Probably just haven’t even thought about it enough to realize Steve might be worth not trusting. It stings a little, but it works in their favor today, so Steve’ll take it. As soon as snack time is over, he dashes off to sit by Bucky while Mr. Fury goes over counting again. Him and Bucky both know how to count, so he figures the game is more important. Steve hadn’t wanted to play in the first place, but now that he is, he definitely wants the two of them to win it. 

 

“I heard Peter Parker talking ‘bout where they hid their pens from today,” Steve whispers to Bucky when they’re given time to fill out a worksheet. “Loose tile by Tony’s cubby.” 

 

Bucky grins at him. “Perfect! We’ll have a look before we leave.” 

 

Normally, Steve hates that him and Bucky spend most Tuesday and Thursday afternoons waiting until nearly five to be picked up. He knows it’s because their parents are working and they need to work to take care of them, but most days, by the time 2:30 rolls around, there’s nowhere Steve would rather be than at home or at Bucky’s place. Still, it works in their favor today. Like always, Tony is one of the first to get picked up, and Steve has to hold Bucky back by the sleeve to keep him from immediately racing over to his cubby. There’s still plenty of kids around and even if Tony isn’t there to see, someone else will. 

 

Later, nearly two hours after the dismissal bell, when there’s only a small spattering of kids hanging about, Steve goes with Bucky to inspect the loose tile. There’s a few of their classmates, but most of them are busy playing, so Steve is fairly confident no one sees when they crouch down, push aside the tile, and grab the handful of gel pens Tony’s team had collected. Steve grins and puts the tile back in place before anyone can notice. He shoves them in his pocket and scurries back to where he and Bucky had been sitting with coloring books and building blocks. No need to make people wonder what they were both doing at Tony’s cubby. 

 

“Where should we hide ‘em?” Bucky asks. “It’d be cheating to take ‘em home…” 

 

Steve thinks for a second, before lighting up and going over to his own cubby, where he hides the gel pens away behind his first aid bag, which contains his EpiPen and emergency inhaler. Most of their classmates are too freaked out by it to go near it, making it the perfect hiding place. When he sits by Bucky again, he gives him a not at all conspicuous high five. “There!” 

 

“We’re totally gonna win, Stevie.” 

  
  


\-----

 

Tuesday goes well, which is probably why neither of them should be surprised when Wednesday starts out disastrously. Steve and Bucky both know they should completely ignore their hiding spot during the day, so no one catches on, but they’re some of the first students to arrive, and they can’t help it, so as soon as Bucky’s put his lunchbox away, he joins Steve at his cubby to check behind the bag again. Only to find nothing there. Steve’s eyes widen as he even rifles through the bag, because he’s absolutely sure he’d put them here! Who could have grabbed them in such little time? There’d been no one else!

 

“Looking for these, boys?” 

 

In their haste to turn around, they almost knock into each other. Natasha is standing behind them, holding their gel pens in her fist. Bucky tries to dive for them, but she pulls her hand away too fast and he ends up just nearly tripping over the carpet. He turns back around to face her, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting. Neither of them had accounted for a bump in the road like this. 

 

“How’d you get those, Nat?” Bucky asks, trying uselessly to grab them again. Natasha, unfortunately, remains too fast. 

 

She shrugs, holding them behind her back. “Don’t matter. You want them back?” 

 

“Course we do!” Steve agrees, holding his hand out. “Can we please have them back, Nat?” 

 

“Sure.” Natasha plops the gel pens down on his palm, which Steve is happy about, but it only makes Bucky more suspicious. 

 

“What’s that for? Ain’t you on Tony’s team?” Bucky asks, going to step between her and Steve, as though this is some big fight and not three five year olds bickering over miniature pens. 

 

“Yes. What about it? Besides, did you think no one would get suspicious when all of a sudden all of Tony’s points go missing?” she points out. 

 

“Oh, we… Didn’t think of that.” 

 

“Clearly. Well, it’ll be pretty suspicious. Unless, of course, someone suggests to them that Clint’s team is behind it…” Natasha shrugs again, as though she isn’t perfectly aware of the groundwork she’s laying. 

 

“Yeah? And why should we trust ya?” Bucky asks, frowning at her. Steve’s frowning too, but it’s much easier for Bucky to do, considering Steve is the smallest of the class and frowning at Natasha involves having to gaze up quite embarrassingly. 

 

“I like a bit of drama. Tony’s gonna be super dramatic if he loses to you two,” she says simply. 

 

It’s not very compelling, but they don’t have much of a choice, so the three of them end up shaking on it. (Bucky tries to get them all to spit on it, but Steve reminds him that their moms are always saying that’s why they get sick together and Natasha says that’s just plain gross, so they end up not doing it.) Steve puts the pens behind his bag again, though he knows just as much as Bucky that they’ll need a new hiding place, no matter how much they might want to trust Natasha. 

 

“What’re we gonna do now, Buck?” Steve laments, sighing as they go to sit for homeroom. 

 

“Don’t worry, Stevie. I’ll think ‘a something,” Bucky promises. 

 

At playground, Bucky promises Steve he’ll be right back and then runs off somewhere, too fast for Steve to keep up with him. It sucks. Steve doesn’t like to think mean things, especially when he knows he shouldn’t be selfish about Bucky’s time, but he can’t help it. He doesn’t want to share his best friend with anybody. He ends up at their usual tunnel to wait for him. He’s sure Bucky will come back sooner or later, and that he’s doing something important if he ran off like that. Sure enough, a few minutes later, Bucky joins him, along with one of his friends, a girl from Mr. Ross’ class that Steve hasn’t spent all that much time with. Her name is Shuri, he’s pretty sure, and her family had moved here in January. Steve has a hard enough time being friends with people who’ve lived in the neighborhood all his life, let alone newcomers. Bucky’s nothing like that, though. He’s always had an easy time making friends. 

 

“Steve, this is Shuri. Shuri, this is Steve. She’s gonna help us,” Bucky explains, grinning proudly at Steve. 

 

“She is?” Steve frowns, but he tries to be polite like his Ma would like and reaches forward to shake Shuri’s hand very formally. “How come?” 

 

“I’m on Tony’s team. Technically. But I don’t even want to play this silly game. He didn’t even ask if I wanted to play! Just told me I was and put me on his team.” Shuri rolls her eyes. “So I don’t care very much who wins, but I’d rather it be Bucky. Bucky’s cool.” 

 

“He is,” Steve agrees, and that gets him to trust her almost immediately. Anyone who recognizes how cool his best friend is can’t be all that bad. 

 

“So Shuri has an older brother and he’s in  _ third grade, _ ” Bucky explains. Steve looks appropriately impressed. Third grade is very big, after all. “Rules are we had to hide it on school, doesn’t say it’s gotta be down here in the preschool! So Shuri’s gonna talk to her older brother today and he’s gonna meet us at the playground fence tomorrow and Friday mornin’ to hide the pens over in the third grade classrooms, since no one’s gonna go peekin’ round the third grade hall, and then Friday at the beginning of recess, he’s gonna meet us at the fence again to give ‘em back before the final point count.”

 

Steve looks over at Shuri. “You sure he’ll help?” 

 

“Mother says I’m very persuasive,” Shuri promises. 

 

Steve doesn’t know what that word means, but it sounds good, so he nods and the three of them shake on it as well, sans spit. Much like last playground, they spend this one watching the others again to see who’s found what and where pens are being hidden. Natasha had done a good job convincing Tony that Clint had been the one to steal his points, so both teams are going at it with a vengeance today. Tony to regain his lost points and Clint for being wrongfully accused. That’s just better for Steve and Bucky, since they just sit back and watch everyone else exert themselves running back and forth and checking under every rock. After recess, Steve sits near Clint and the twins for story time, and is extremely pleased with himself when neither of them thinks much about it and continue whispering to each other about where they’ve hidden yesterday and today’s loot. Steve makes sure to sit with his good ear ever so slightly angled towards them and while he doesn’t catch the entire conversation, he hears enough of it. 

 

He and Bucky make a field trip to Mr. Grandmaster’s classroom after school. They get caught going in, but Mr. Grandmaster just asks them if they’re here because of the scavenger hunt and looks absolutely delighted when they admit that yes, they are. He lets them continue their search, pretending he never even saw them come in. Steve is pretty sure someone like this shouldn’t be in charge of a class of kindergarteners, but that’s not his concern right now. His concern right now is winning. Sure enough, they find Clint’s collection of pens shoved under books in the naptime corner and they each grab two fistfuls of pens and dash back to Mr. Fury’s classroom. They don’t trust their original hiding spot anymore, and T’Challa won’t help the until the next morning, but they do the best they can, and Steve ends up hiding them underneath the lunchbox shelf, since his hand is only just skinny enough to reach there, and he’s sure most of the others can’t. 

 

It’s going well, to be honest, and Steve is starting to believe they might actually end up winning. 

  
  


\---

 

Thursday is thankfully uneventful. T’Challa meets them as planned and takes all the pens to his classroom, where Steve is sure no one will find them. Clint notices, of course, that his team’s points were gone, but naturally, blames Tony for it. This wasn’t really something he and Bucky planned out ahead of time, but Steve is more than happy to take credit for it since it’s working so well. Neither team even does much finding during recess on Thursday. Mostly, they argue by the swingset. That’s perfectly fine by Steve and Bucky. That just means they’re that much less likely to catch up to the two of them. They do end up with a couple more points, though, and Friday morning, they pass it over to T’Challa just like last time. Steve’s feeling pretty good about the whole thing and if he didn’t find it terribly unlucky to celebrate a success before it was official, he would have probably said they’d just about won. 

 

The final point count is Friday during the last few minutes of recess, so as soon as recess starts, Steve goes to the fence between the preschool playground and the elementary school playground so he can meet T’Challa. Bucky’s busy playing at the monkey bars with some kids who’d been tagged out of the game already, but it’s all secretly part of their plan to make everyone think the two of them have nothing to do with any of this. (Plus, Bucky had wanted to play on the monkey bars today and since Steve probably shouldn’t, it’s better for all of them that he goes to collect their pens from T’Challa.) 

 

They meet at the corner of the playground as usual and T’Challa passes him the pens through the fence. Steve can tell he considers the whole thing pretty stupid, but he’s too polite to call them out on it, which Steve appreciates. “Thanks a million!” 

 

“Sure. Make sure Shuri remembers she owes me now,” T’Challa says, stepping back once their transaction is finished. 

 

“Will do,” Steve promises, shoving all the pens into his pockets. It’s bulky and there’s obviously something there, but if anyone asks, he’ll just say it’s his inhaler and hope he doesn’t get too many questions. “Bye!”

 

Steve runs back to the playground after, tugging on one Bucky’s legs so he’ll hop off the monkey bars. Bucky gets the message and goes to join Steve in their tunnel. “Did ya get it?” he asks eagerly, reaching into Steve’s pockets. 

 

Steve bats his hands away, but nods. “Yeah! We got fourteen points, which is way more than Tony or Clint had yesterday.” 

 

“We’re totally gonna win.” Bucky grins. 

 

They spend most of recess in their tunnel, making plans for what movie they’ll watch at their celebratory sleepover tonight and giggling about how well their plans have gone. About five minutes before playground is due to be over, Mr. Grandmaster declares The Game officially over and most of their grade runs over to crowd around him. Steve and Bucky make their way over, wiggling their way to the front of the crowd where Tony and Clint have presented their team’s points. Mr. Grandmaster is counting them out loud, probably in some lazy effort to make it seem like this is actually about learning numbers. 

 

“Well, Clint’s team has seven and Tony’s team has nine. You know what that means, kids. The winner is -” 

 

Steve cuts him off, running up and pulling the pens out of his pocket to shove them into Grandmaster’s hands. “Wait, wait! Mr. Grandmaster, Bucky and I got points too. Count ‘em!”

 

“Oh? How exciting! Now let’s see…” He counts them out loud and with every number, Tony looks progressively more annoyed. “Twelve, thirteen, fourteen! Well, it seems we have a new winner!”

 

“That’s not fair! There were two teams and they weren’t one,” Tony complains, huffing and pouting. 

 

“Nuh uh. We told ya Tuesday that we were gonna be our own team ‘cause no one wanted Steve. Not our fault if you forgot!” Bucky says. 

 

Steve suspects Bucky’s about two seconds away from stepping forward and shoving Tony down to the floor, so he steps half between them so they can all avoid getting in trouble on a Friday afternoon. “It’s true, Mr. Grandmaster, Bucky and I told everyone we were a team. They just didn’t care.” 

 

“Clever, clever boys. Rules are rules. Our winner this week is Bucky’s team!” Mr. Grandmaster declares. 

 

Bucky shakes his head and corrects, “Steve’s team, Mister.” 

 

“Well, then, Steve’s team wins today.” 

 

“I want a rematch,” Tony grumbles. “This week had stupid rules anyway.” 

 

“Fine! We can have a rematch next week, but this time, I wanna be one of the team captain’s,” Steve insists. Honestly, he’s sure him and Bucky can pull it off again just the two of them, but it’ll be funner to rub it into Tony’s face by being a captain. (Even if that’s not what polite boys are supposed to do. Ma will just have to forgive him.)

 

Tony lets out a loooong sigh and reaches up to take back all his gel pens. “Fine, whatever, Cap. Next Monday we’ll pick new teams and make new rules. Better rules! You better not get sick, ‘cause we won’t wait for you.” 

 

“I won’t. See you Monday!” Steve beams at him and grabs Bucky’s hand, pulling him away from the crowd so they can start going back to their own classroom. Mr. Fury and Mr. Ross are already trying to corral people back to their homerooms, though it’s a difficult task and done entirely without Mr. Grandmaster’s help, of course. Steve always enjoys their classroom a little more when it’s just him and Bucky, though. “I can’t believe we really won, Buck!” 

 

“‘Course we won. Like I said. You’re our personal  _ ninja _ ! Oh! We should watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cartoons tonight!” Bucky decides. 

 

“Yeah! We’ll start thinkin’ ‘bout who we want on our team, too.” 

 

“Your team, Stevie.” 

 

“Sure, sure.  _ My  _ team.” 

**Author's Note:**

> this was honestly probably the funniest and most adorable thing I've ever written wow
> 
> hope you enjoyed! <3 
> 
> for questions, prompts, or chatting I can be found on tumblr at [sebbym17](http://sebbym17.tumblr.com/)


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